Marilyn Hickey (Magic Marilyn)

WFLI DJ, 1977-78

Marilyn – “I have so many memories of working at WFLI…I loved it. I loved the sound; classic rock is still by far my favorite music. I loved working with those great deejays, and meeting legends I had listened to since the station first came on the air, when my sister and I had to hold two wires together on an old radio to hear the likes of Tommy Jet, Stan the Man, Johnny Eagle and the rest of the “legends”.
I loved working my way up from copywriter to recording and producing commercial spots, on-air news reporter to, finally, deejay. Sitting in that booth with my headphones on and picturing the people who were feeling more happy because of that great sound that was W-F-L-I !!!
One of my best buddies was William (Dexter) Poindexter, and thru him, his wonderful wife Sheila…
Dex was full of mischief, never a dull moment. He often started kidding around with me live during his shift. Once I was on the air, reading the news printout, when he calmly strolled into the booth, pulled out a bic, and lit the bottom of the paper. I crumpled the small sheet to put out the tiny flame, and we both burst out laughing…
When President Ford, who of course had inherited the job from Nixon, was running for his first actual elected term, he held a press conference in the White House and invited a small number of news directors from the South. Naturally, the radio station that was 50,000 watts reaching three states was on the list…and I was WFLI’s news director. Thus I met and personally spoke with President Ford.
When James Rogers wrote a song called “Fly, Eagle, Fly”, Chattanooga Mayor Pat Rose honored James for this wonderful and inspiring song . I was proud to play it (I think I played it first) and promoted it often on my night show. In appreciation, James wrote a song about me, “Lovely Lady DJ”, and it was beautiful..if you anyone has a copy I want it! 🙂
And my husband loved listening the midnight deejay that he’d never met…
I miss those days, don’t you?”

Bill Poindexter  – “Marilyn is an actress, a good one. Been in several movies & tv things. Great lady.””

Donald Bryson –  “Marilyn was in a very recent episode of Grimm. Her brother, Richard, was a good friend of mine and she won several beauty pageants.”

Marilyn Hickey –  “Ha! Thank you Dex, you should be my publicist! You’re the best. Donald Bryson, I actually was a finalist in the Miss Chattanooga Pageant one year but never won one, in fact that’s the only one I ever entered….but keep spreading the flattering story! :)”

Jim Copeland – “@Marilyn…it did seem like there was an awful lot of fun to be had on a daily basis back in those days! I’m glad we were all there to bear witness! Youth was not wasted on us…at least not completely.”

Carolyn Hickey Roberson –  “I believe Marilyn Hickey was the first female DJ at WFLI.”

posted by Magic Marilyn – “…the fellow on top with the glasses is Barry J, Jim Copeland has the glasses and beard, right is David Carroll”

Carolyn Hickey Roberson commenting on the bumper sticker above -“My design, it seemed like these bumper stickers could be seen on about half the cars in Chattanooga back then…Disclaimer: I did not design the store logo, I did the wfli part and combined it with the store logo”

Bill Poindexter –  “…about a year after i left jet fli i was working in the record business traveling in western north carolina and i saw that sticker on a car on the interstate. made me a bit homesick.”

Rome Benedict and Marilyn at a promotional event

Photo shared by Marilyn Hickey

Magic Marilyn – “I still don’t know if I was the first female deejay at WFLI or in Chattanooga, but I do know I was the first female deejay allowed to drive the WFLI van to do promos, then take it home overnite and drive it back to work the next morning. I did this several times, and I always had a smile on my face, I loved that van!”

Marilyn – “This is a promo for a movie, “Funky Ol’ Brother” and Magic play boxing..”

Betty Benns – “The picture above totally looks like the lobby of the movie theater at Northgate Mall.  Knock ’em out, Magic!”

Magic Marilyn – “I’m in a van suspended by a giant crane about 60 feet in the air. I was supposed to stay up there (not overnite!) for three days, giving on-air reports about every half hour, until a certain number of cars were sold by the dealership. But on the second afternoon a snow and ice storm developed and my mom called the station demanding that they get her daughter down from there! Mom got her way of course, thank goodness!

Stephen Miolen – “Did you get the van when it was over?”

MarilynFriends Hickey – “HA! No, but I think I got around 200 bucks..MAJOR moolah to me!

These were only two of the promos Rome Benedict set up. He was always thinking up great ones and promising the clients that Magic would do them…and I did. I also once did one from a Rock City hot air balloon, so much fun and so beautiful!”

Marilyn – “This is Johnny Eagle and me, looks like we’re saying “..Are they sure they gave us the right address for this promo??”

Marilyn – “I’m in a dunk tank for a charity event, and thought my brother Richard Hickey was protecting me. Turns out he was on the side of the fans and dunked me…again!”